WOYWW 853

 GIMME SOME OF THAT CHOCOLATE!

Hi there lovely Deskers, hope you've had a good week! Here we are again linking up over at Sarah's for another round of Desky snooping. While I remember, Eva and Robyn, your messages about wanting to contribute to Julia's fund was so very lovely of you but it would have been a bit tricky coordinating payments from abroad. I included your wishes in with the gifts and I know Julia and Mr D were so appreciative. Thank you again xx

Another busy week has rolled by, this is what was on my desk last Friday:

There's been a lot of Ferrero Rocher stuffing going on lol! Hats, gnomes, bears, snowmen, robins, penguins, you name it they've had a FR stuffed up 'em *grin*  

I was trying to explain to Lynne about my quick and dirty method of cutting holly leaves out of felt, here's a pic, hope it makes sense!

I cut out triangles and then each point gets snipped to form three leaves. I know they're not exactly holly leaves but they're good enough for a decoration on the Christmas Pud FR covers!

We rolled out the stall on Saturday:

The first craft market of the season. It was a lovely sociable morning and we had a brisk trade.

And it definitely wasn't too early for Christmas! We sold a lot of everything and made £182.50 which took us over the £11k mark, hooray! Everything else is just a bonus now - I've got another fair this Saturday and some of the RNLI ladies who helped me knit a lot of the items are coming to help, so that should be fun.

In the JanCave, I fancied doing something different so found the fabrics that G's sister donated to me (brand new FQs she found in a charity shop)

I put a couple of stash fabrics in there as well and am doing a simple baby quilt of squares.

It turned out ok, now for the backing and border but goodness knows when that's going to be done!

Have a good week, enjoy the autumn weather and may your crafting be stress free xxx

WOYWW 852

 SWEET AS CANDY

Hi there, all you lovely deskers, hope you've had a good week. It's been another full one here, we've been getting out and about and enjoying the sunshine. It's been busy craftwise too, not just mine but coordinating what others are doing for the RNLI fundraising. Talking of which, the collection tin in the harbour cafe yielded another £325 so I was chuffed with that, only another £95 to reach the £11k, woohoo!

I've been using my most recent fabric purchases:

Both fabrics were lovely to work with...

I love that elephant print, the purple spotty was perfect with it.

Halfway through another glasses case - I was pleased with the warm olivey-grey as the lining, it tones really well. I like this cherry blossom fabric too, so pretty.

I saw some cheap cotton FQs so got some to make Halloween bags as there's two fairs in the next two weeks:

Simple drawstring bags with black cotton linings and ribbon ties (both of which were donated to me, so kind and really keeps the costs down!)

I had a bit of a count up/stock take of the Christmas things made so far, and my guest room now looks like this:

There's a fair few things now but it's hard to know exactly how many to make. All I know is I might have sufficient Ferrero Rochers......

They're not all for me, lol! I've got to distribute some to the kind gals who are knitting away at the moment. A friend went to CostCo and got these, they were a bit cheaper than elsewhere. It's just as well that I'm not that keen on these isn't it? 

And while I'll be chatting with a friend online, I have some snowmen sewing up to do:

Sewing on the carrot noses is the fiddliest bit for sure!

As many of you will have heard by now, Julia and Barry had a real shock at the weekend when their worksheds and business premises burned to the ground - thankfully no-one was hurt but they've lost everything. Thank you to the deskers who contacted me and donated so we could send some flowers and another little surprise - I'm aware that I couldn't contact everyone so apologies if I missed you out, I wanted to get something organised quickly.  Julia was very touched to know how much love and support they have but then, that's what WOYWW is all about isn't it? The crafting is almost secondary now!
Take care and have a good week xxxxxx

WOYWW 851

 I PICKED ONE PUMPKIN FROM THE MEADOW THAT NIGHT...

That's been a week of two halves! Up to and including Saturday was like Noah's flood and since then it has been the most gloriously sunny autumn weather.  As I'm feeling better now, we've been out and about, of which more later.

The craft room is a tip!

I've still got craft fair stuff ready to go except two fairs have been pulled (by the organisers not me) but I'm not going to unpack anything. I made a start on the Starry Night fabric.

I like both these spotty liners so am using them both!

I've got these adjustable straps down off pat now but they did cause swearing in the early days lol!

And the little pumpkin beanies for the baby unit turned out well!

Last Sunday was a gorgeous day so we went out bright and early and headed towards Laugharne, I'd not been there for years.

The castle was looking striking in the sunshine! It was free entry as part of the Cadw heritage open day scheme so that was a bonus.

There was a possible alternative to the JanCave in a lookout hut on the ramparts:

I could while away an hour or two in there but don't know how much work I'd get done with that view!

You can't really go in any rooms but it was interesting to see how a medieval castle was transformed into a Tudor Mansion in the 16th C. They also put in the knot garden you can see in the pic. The gateway gave a view out onto this historic town:

We had a really nice mooch around.

But most people associate Laugharne with Dylan Thomas of course and the walk to his writing studio was fab:

We didn't go in the house but you can peek through the window of Dylan's writing shed which had another inspiring view.

We passed a bench in a sunny spot and this plaque made me smile:

Any offers? I'll meet you there on Friday, the weather's looking good then!!

And if any of you would like to check out the beach where we live, there's now a live webcam at the front of the RNLI station which has a feed to YouTube, The link is here: - the high tide is 8.46m this morning at 08.26 (8.25m at 08.54 tomorrow)

Thanks for reading to the end! Hope you have a good week xx

WOYWW 850

 OOOOH, WHAT A WHOPPER....

(The Marrow Song - The Wurzels)

Hello lovely Deskers, how lovely to have your company on another Wednesday - linking up over at Sarah's where crafters from all over the world show what they're up to!

I haven't spent a huge amount in the JanCave, but I did have some fabric vouchers from G on our anniversary last Thursday (43 years...good grief... the man deserves a medal!!)

Everything got chucked in:

There's stuff ready for a craft fair on the bed, some stuff ready to be sewn by the window and my new stash on the desk - oooh, there are some beauties there...

Seaweed, shells and a homage to Vincent's starry skies...

And some Asian/African inspired patterns too. I'm all right for fabric just for now, that should keep me busy over winter. The cross body bags are going like hot cakes down at the tearooms so that's what I'll be concentrating on initially.

I've done enough C knitting and when I saw the local maternity unit needed more little hats I though that's what I'd do next. And it uses up smaller amounts of yarn too, win win!

I grabbed a couple of free patterns from Marianna's online and am making two sizes. The variegated yarns were the first to be used but that bright orange is next to make pumpkin hats (the hospital's request, I'm not going mad!)

After a couple of weeks being tied to the house cos of the vertigo, I've actually managed to get out a couple of times, hooray! Still not up to a ten mile march but it's a start....

We went to Aberglasney gardens as we'd not been there for ages and yesterday was the nicest  weather wise amidst all the rain.

It's hard to credit this was a ruin in the 80s! The trust has worked so hard and there's a lot packed in. There were some awesome dahlias, penstemons and salvias in bronze, purples and deep reds - gorgeous.

And cyclamen in the woodland...

And hundreds of butterflies (or should that be pili pala as we're in Wales)

And indoor plants whose leaves grew in a star shape!

The reason for the lyric?

There were gourds hanging in the cherry tunnel! But it's hard to gauge the scale isn't it? So.....

Oooh, what a whopper! 

Hope you have a marvellous week and enjoy whatever it is you get up to xxxxx

WOYWW 849

 I SAW A MOUSE! WHERE?

THERE ON THE STAIR.

(Bet you're all singing that now, lol!!)

Happy Wednesday everyone - it's the time again for the sharing of our weekly makes over at Sarah's Craft Shed. There's always something wonderful and inspiring to check out,  I really enjoy seeing what everyone's working on!

There's been a little more sewing and knitting but mainly sorting out this week. I am feeling a bit better with the vertigo, thanks for all the commiserations last week, it's not dangerous or life threatening but my goodness, you feel really grim.

Anyhow, onwards and steadier!

Some new plastic wallet files kicked off a sorting out of my templates and patterns....

...but I did do a bit of cutting out and sewing. These cross body bags have been a hit down at the cafe where my fundraising sales take place (only £400 to get to £11K for the RNLI) Both the camo fabrics were £1.50 a metre in a sale so that's really great for maxing the profits.  And I'm channelling my inner Bet Lynch with the leopardskin, lol!

Most of the crafting has been knitting though:

FC now has eyes to guide Rudolph through the night skies!

The sparkly yarn that Wipso gave me was great for a hat and scarf for this Choc Orange snowman.

And the little mice got bows or pompoms, it just finished them off nicely!

I carried on sorting out, this time with my knitting patterns:

I've been putting them into spiral bound wallet files, so much easier. Toys, Christmas stuff, garments, blankets, hats - all now in their right places. But my favourite thing? That yellowed scrap of paper....

My dear mum's handwriting for the Feather and Fan knitting stitch *love*  More precious to me than any gold or antique. She taught me to knit when I was 6 and I hope that she'd be proud that I'm still making all these years later xx

Hope you have a marvellous week, whatever you get up to!

WHO'S ON MY SOFA?! WOYWW 848

 YOU GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS....

Hi everyone, hope you've had a good week! I have to apologise for lack of comments last week, I've had vertigo and it's affected me quite badly. I finally got to meet up with Wipso, having had to reschedule cos of feeling dizzy but we eventually made it!

Yay! We had a lovely couple of hours together and Annie had bought me some presents including this gorgeous sparkly Christmas yarn. It was lovely to see Doddy, Annie's husband and meet up with Peggy the little dog as well xxx

I lost no time in using the new yarn, knitting is all I've felt like doing:

Some more mice...

And a new pattern for a choc orange Father Christmas cover!

Now the question is should he have eyes (he doesn't on the pattern) and various friends have said yes and no! I'll embroider some on one and see how he looks though I think you'll agree that his handlebar moustache is rather fine, lol!

Hope you have a great week xxx

WOYWW 847

 IT AIN'T WHAT YOU DO, IT'S THE WAY THAT YOU DO IT!

Hello lovely deskers, another week of meeting up for crafty snooping over at Sarah's - short and sweet today for me.

This is the fabric I kept from the recent donation and the best way to use it up is pick one lot out at random, see how much yardage there is and that defines what gets cut out. So this week, I've made:

This nautical fabric is so soft, it's gorgeous quality.

Animal print stuff always sells well!

And I used some funky red zips with this doggy fabric as it picked out the red coats:

A breed for all buyers!

The knitting continues - I've actually really enjoyed making these, they're so small you get a lot done!

Parts to make a little mouse in a dress choc orange cover!

And before you know it:

They've rather grown in numbers! Ah well, what doesn't sell this year can be put by for next *grin*

Wipso and hubby are dropping in tomorrow, rescheduled from Tuesday so there'll be pics to share next week. I'm really looking forward to seeing them both, plus Peggy the dog as well!

Have a great week everyone xx